benchmarks

The low-end of the smartphone market is where Windows Phone truly has a chance to shine and gain significant market share. Yesterday we compared the king of smartphone affordability – the Lumia 520 – against the newcomer to the throne – the Lumia 530. We learned the Lumia 530 was a worthy upgrade to the Lumia 520, but should you opt for the Lumia 520 or the Lumia 635. We find that out today.

How does the Lumia 530 and its 1.2 GHz Snapdragon 200 chipset stack up against the Lumia 635 and its 1.2 GHz Snapdragon 400 processor? Does the price difference between the two add up to a comparable performance difference? Let's find out.

The HTC One (M8) for Windows is now available for those in the US on Verizon Wireless. In the coming months, other carriers, including AT&T, are set to launch the same flagship Windows Phone. The release of the HTC One (M8) for Windows is good news because with the cancellation of 'McLaren,' there are no flagship Lumias on the immediate horizon.

When it comes to hardware, the HTC One (M8) for Windows features some innovative specs, including a newer Snapdragon 801 chipset clocked at 2.3 GHz along with the Adreno 330 GPU. The Lumia 1520 packs a still noteworthy – but older – Snapdragon 800 with a 2.2 GHz clock speed and Adreno 330 GPU.

Does it make it a difference? Indeed it does. The HTC One (M8) has become the second fastest smartphone in the world, and the fastest Windows Phone to date.

The Nokia Lumia 630 is starting to hit markets worldwide, and one thing that's worth noting is its processor. We'll be doing a full review of the 630 shortly, but let's just say the bump in hardware does go a long way.

For our assessments we used the cross-platform Basemark OS II app ( Store link), which can evaluate the performance of system (CPU), memory, graphics, web browsing and even camera speed tests. We'll post the results below, with our discussion after.

Want to know just how good your Windows phone's camera is? Check out CamSpeed, the new app from Sofica. With CamSpeed, you can benchmark the focus and image capturing capabilities of your phone's built-in camera. Not only that, you can compare it your other devices, as well as those of other CamSpeed users by uploading your results to Sofica's online charts.

CamSpeed allows you to adjust resolution, focus mode and flash mode, then measures:

- Focus Time

(time from focus call to successful focus event)

- Capture Start Time

(time from capture call to the moment when the capture sequence has started)

- Capture Image Available

(time from capture call to the moment when an image is available)

- Capture Completed

(time from capture call to the moment when the capture sequence is complete)

PCMag got their hands on HTC's latest additions to the WP7 family, the Titan and Radar, and ran some benchmarks on them. The phones were put through their paces using Browsermark and Sunspider for web-browsing benchmarks and the caveman cart-racer, Cro-Mag Rally, for gaming and video performance.

The Titan, with its mammoth 4.7" display and 1.5Ghz processor, is the flagship HTC WP7 phone, while the Radar will presumably be a more "cost-sensitive" option. The difference between the two was clear in the tests. Let's go to the numbers.

On the browsing front, the Titan scored 32771 in Browsermark, with the Radar only clocking in at 21026. In Sunspider, the Titan was at 66.03, compared to the Radar's 94.40. it's important to note here, that with Sunspider, the lower the score, the faster the performance. PCMag says that while the two new HTC devices still trail the top Android 2.3 performers in the browsing benchmarks, they are still significantly better than their pre-Mango predecessors. A Samsung Focus with NoDo installed clocked in at a measly 6903 in Browsermark, and couldn't even make through a Sunspider 0.9.1 test.

When it comes to the video tests, the benchmarks were less scientific. The Titan ran Cro-Mag Rally smoothly, with a noticiably higher frame rate, whereas background graphics on the Radar were "a bit jerky compared to the Titan." While stat geeks may want to see some concrete numbers, the eye test sums it up.

The Titan and Radar are a nice pair of phones that cover different wants/needs and price points. While they may be the first of the HTC Mango phones, they surely will not be the last. We cannot wait to see what else they have in store.